Cat owner tells their sitter to "help himself to whatever" in the kitchen while cat-sitting, he unknowingly drinks a $120 bottle of wine, and she blows up on him, demanding $80 back: 'Now hes calling me tacky'

Finding a good cat sitter is hard, but sometimes, it's the cat owner who's in the wrong.

We often talk about how difficult it is to find good cat sitters, and that is true. It is hard to find someone who you trust enough to take care of your kitty and your home. But we can admit that, sometimes, the trouble comes from the other direction too. We've heard of cat owners decide they don't want to pay their cat-sitters. We've heard of people demanding their cat-sitter pay thousands for a cat door in their own home that they will never use. We've even heard of someone asking their cat sitter to pay for cat therapy because the cat got too attached to the sitter.

Just as much as it is the cat sitter's job to respect your boundaries, it is also your job to state these boundaries clearly. If you don't want someone eating your food, tell them that. If you don't want them using that specific towel, say that too. And if you tell someone that they can help themselves to anything in the kitchen, then you better mean that and not throw a fit when they accidentally open up and drink an expensive bottle of wine that you have been keeping.

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"[Am I wrong] for asking my friend to pay me back for the wine he drank while house sitting??"

via Unsplash / Danilo Rios

Picture of a man and a cat sitting side by side.
Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.
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via Unsplash / Erica Marsland Huynh - partyintheshire

Picture of a man watching his phone with a black cat lying on his chest.
Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.
On the one hand, we do agree that there is an unwritten rule of some kind about using people's expensive things, even when they are given permission. We probably would hesitate using anything in that kitchen. But since permission was given here, a fit cannot be thrown over someone using that permission. We would have no idea how to tell the difference between a cheap bottle of wine and an expensive one. And if the bottle was right on the counter, exactly where we were told that we have free rein, yeah, if we wanted it, the last thing we would be worried about is it being too expensive.
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via Unsplash / Madalyn Cox - madalyncox

Picture of a man reading on a couch and cuddling with a black cat.
Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.
We wholeheartedly agre that this person most likely just wanted to do their friend a favor by staying in the house longer. That is something that pet owners usually really appreciate from their pet sitters. The longer you are with them, the less lonely they are while we are not there. Chilling with the cat for a night, sitting in front of the TV with a bottle of wine - that is something that we definitely would have been thankful for. And if it was a bottle of wine we didn't want them to use, we would take responsibility - because we didn't specify that they shouldn't use it.
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